2 Stone Terrace, Stone Street, Cambridge

A Railway worker and his fmaily

Number 2 is part of a terrace of 6 houses at the end of Stone Street.

History of the Baker Family 1891 – 1926

Head of household is George Baker, a 49-year-old trucklifter originally from Kent lives here with his wife Sarah Jane, 39, and their seven children.  They have moved from 23 Ainsworth Street where they appear on the 1881 Census.

George Edward is 14 and Charles Arthur is 13, they are both errand boys.  Alice Maud is 10, Freddy is 7, and Albert Richard is 5, they all go to school.  Percy is 2 and the baby is 10-month-old Florence.

Percy is enrolled at Barnwell Boys School on 11th October 1897, his previous school is given as St Matthews.  He leaves on the 13th June 1902.

The family is still here in 1901 and George’s job is now described as a railway wagon lifter.  There are four children living with them now.  George is 24 and a railway engine stoker.  Albert is 14 and a butcher’s assistant, Percy is 12 and Florrie Agnes is 10.  There is a new daughter, 6-year-old Jenny.

On the 1911 Census we see that George is still lifting trucks for the railway.  Albert is still living at home; he is 24 and a milkman. Percy is 22 and a butcher’s assistant, Florence is 20 and a kitchen maid.  Jenny is now Emily and a 16-year-old Hotel Waitress.

The 1911 Census tells us that George and Sarah Jane have been married for 35 years, they have recorded nine children, two of whom have died. However, the records suggest that three of their children have died by 1911, Edith, Freddy and Alice.

Sarah Jane died suddenly on October 27th 1917.  The family placed an In Memorium in the paper the following year.  It said that she was “of 2 Stone Terrace“.

George died in 1920.

Children of George and Sarah Jane

Edith Ann Baker was born in 1892 and died on 5th December 1893 aged just 15 months.

George Edward married Harriett Gawthrop in 1906 and they live at 110 Ross Street.  They had one child, a daughter called Doris Alice May Baker.  All three are buried in Ely.

Charles Arthur is living at Bridge House on Newmarket Road in 1901, he is boarding with the Stocker family.  On Christmas Day 1902 he marries one of the Stocker daughters, Ada Ann.  They eventually move to Twickenham where he starts as a motor mechanic and moves up to aircraft mechanics by 1939.

Alice Maud is working as a servant for two old ladies on Elm Street in 1901.  She died in 1910 aged 29.

Frederick William died aged 14 in November 1898.

Albert marries Florence Bendall in 1912. From 1917 they are living at 27 Ainsworth Street.  He serves in the RAF during the First World War.  He appears on the 1939 Register living at 56 Darwin Drive where he is employed as a road sweeper.

Percy married Florence Flack in 1918, and in 1919 he is on the electoral register at 75 Ainsworth Street.  The 1939 register shows that he became a joint maker on the L.N.E.R. and was living at 69 Ainsworth Street from 1922 until his death in 1942.

Florence marries Harry Rank, a 23-year-old kiln burner from Cherry Hinton on the 5th April 1913.  They move to Rugby.

The child who was called Jenny in 1901 and Emily in 1911 was actually baptised as “Emma Jane”.  She married George Mayne in 1919 and they live at 2 Stone Terrace until 1926.  George places an ad in the paper asking for work and saying is an ex-soldier and “used to horses“.

The 1921 Census shows George working as a Postman.

By 1939 they are living at 121 Hobart Road.  George is still a postman.

Sources: 1891, 1901, 1911 UK Census, FindAGrave.com, Cambridgeshire Marriages, 1939 Register, National School Admission Registers & Log-Books 1870-1914, England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915, England & Wales Births 1837-2006, Cambridge Independent Press 25 October 1918, Cambridge Independent Press 14 March 1919